In a way, I was dragged, not so much kicking and screaming, but shuffling my feet, and muttering under my breath into the digital age. See, I prefer large, noisy, smelly, greasy machinery, to the mysterious goings on in that silver and clear plastic box, humming almost ominously on my desk.

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A locomotive, an aircraft engine, the inner mysteries of the Jeep transfer case, or the simplicity of a rocket motor is understandable to one who, grew up in the era, when IBM meant punched cardboard cards.

Did I just give my age away?

I recall, as a kid, when a computer meant a large, well-guarded building, with lots of workers in lab coats and horn rimmed glasses performing Great Miracles Of Computation. Such as orbital dynamics or solving the great problems of the day.

So, what happened? Just how did we as a society, go from the great miracles of computation, to pop up ads, spam e-mail, and what seems to be 20,000 Web sites about Brittany Spears?

The computer seems to have been transformed, from the big idea, to the way that someone I don’t even know, can try to convince me I need a little blue pill.

Every day. At least 100 times.

In the course of writing these every week, I run a spell check every so often. The computer, in it’s infinite wisdom, seems to think I should change “spam” to sperm.

Progress. Oh joy.

Don’t get me wrong, the computer, and the communication that it now provides, are a great invention. In fact, I rank it right up there, with the invention of the C.B. radio. Or the 8 track.

Yes, I’m that underimpressed with the Internet. Why, you ask? As with most things, it started out as a really good idea, then commercialization took place. One “industry” was able to make money (pornography) and everyone jumped on the bandwagon.

From new cars, old junk, auctions promising the rare-rare-rare, and even mates can be found on the World Wide Weird. One can find conspiracy theories, creation theories, ballistics theories, and evolution theories on the Web.

So much for encyclopedia salesmen.

I do have a few good things to say about the Web. I can stay in touch with my kids, now they are dispersing across the nation. I can find out what that strange connection is under the dash of the Jeep. I can also get a good belly laugh, from a recent phenomena, the LOL cat. (As an explanation, an LOL cat is a photo of a normal cat, in a strange position with a funny caption. Usually misspelled and involving invisible objects.)

Another thing the Internet is “useful” for is opinions. Such as this one. Or, the thousands of people who have taken up blogging.

Which brings me to something I seem rarely to do lately, that is the point. At some point, over the next few weeks, I’m going to try something new. Each week, in addition to these commentaries I will be choosing a photo of the week, to share with the Internet readers. It may be sports, it may be news, it may be scenics, or a project I’m working on, or, something I see as completely ridiculous.

I can’t even claim the creation of this idea. A few weeks back, I wrote about a certain shirt. My lovely bride, suggested I put the photo of the shirt on the Internet, that way, you, my 52 loyal readers could see it. That idea, blossomed into this concept, let’s call it Bob’s Pic-O-the-Week.

Keep checking the opinion page of dailyamerican.com, the Pic-O-the-Week should be up shortly. If I can figure out this wood burning computer out.